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Roger W. Sperry - Biographical

Birthplace and Family: Born August 20,
1913, in Hartford, Connecticut to Francis Bushnell and Florence
Kraemer Sperry of Elmwood, a small suburb. Father was in banking;
mother trained in business school and after dad's death, when I
was 11 years old, she became assistant to the principal in the
local high school. One brother, Russell Loomis, a year younger,
went into chemistry. I was married to Norma Gay Deupree, December
28, 1949. We have one son, Glenn Michael (Tad), born October 13,
1953 and one daughter, Janeth Hope, born August 18, 1963.

Education: My early schooling was in Elmwood, Connecticut and
William Hall High School in West Hartford, Connecticut. I
attended Oberlin College on a 4 year Amos C. Miller
Scholarship. After receiving the AB in English in 1935, I stayed
on 2 years more in Oberlin for an MA in Psychology, 1937, under
Professor R. H. Stetson. I then took an additional third year
at-large at Oberlin to prepare for a switch to Zoology for Ph.D.
work under Professor Paul A. Weiss at the University of
Chicago. After receiving the Ph.D. at Chicago in 1941, I did
a year of postdoctoral research as a National Research Council
Fellow at Harvard University under Professor Karl S.
Lashley.

Awards and Honors: Amos C. Miller Scholarship, Oberlin College
(1931-35); National Research Council Fellowship (1941-42);
Distinguished Alumni Citation; Oberlin College (1954); Elected
National Academy of Sciences (1960); Elected American Academy of
Arts and Sciences (1963); Howard Crosby Warren Medal, Society of
Experimental Psychologists (1969); Distinguished Scientific
Contribution Award, American Psychological Association (1971);
California Scientist of the Year Award (1972); Co-recipient
William Thomson Wakeman Research Award, National Paraplegia
Foundation (1972); Honorary Doctor of Science degree, Cambridge
University (1972); Passano Award in Medical Science (1973);
Elected American Philosophical Society (1974); Elected Honorary
Member American Neurological Association (1974); Co-recipient
Claude Bernard Science Journalism Award (1975); Karl Lashley
Award of American Philosophical Society (1976); Elected Foreign
Member of Royal Society (1976); Honorary Doctor of Science
Degree, University of Chicago (1976); Elected member of
Pontifical Academy of Sciences (1978); Honorary Doctor of Science
Degree, Kenyon College (1979); Wolf Prize in Medicine (1979);
Ralph Gerard Award of the Society of Neurosciences (1979);
International Visual Literacy Association Special Award (1979);
Albert Lasker Medical Research Award (1979); Honorary Doctor of
Science Degree, The Rockefeller University (1980); American
Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award (1980)

A vocational and anti-brain-strain: Collected and raised large
American moths in grade school. Ran trap line and collected live
wild pets during junior high school years. Three-letter man in
varsity athletics in high school and college. Through middle life
continued evening and weekend diversionary activities including
sculpture, ceramics, figure drawing, sports, American folk dance,
boating, fishing, snorkeling, water colors, and collecting
unusual fossils - among which we have a contender for the world's
3rd largest ammonite.

This autobiography/biography was written
at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les
Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures/The Nobel Prizes. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted
by the Laureate.